Permanent Police Surveillance for Mayor London after Continuing Threats. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is under permanent police surveillance due to continuing threats on social media. According to Khan, the number of threats and threats increased exponentially around the Brexit referendum in 2016.

In three months last year, the London city authorities handed over seventeen files of threats to Khan to the police, The Times reports. A total of 237 threats on social media towards Khan were counted in the same period.

According to Khan, the threats vary from ordinary insults to threats of a terror attack.

“I don’t let this kind of people belittle me, but at the same time I can’t help my loved ones from worrying,” Khan said. “It is not true that because I am the mayor of London and a Muslim, I need police surveillance.”

“The Brexit referendum has brought things to the surface, even normalized, which are by no means normal,” Khan continued.

The London mayor is not the only one to report increased political tensions in the UK around the Brexit.

Dozens of Members of Parliament have also said in recent months that they have been the target of death or rape threats due to the high-level discussions surrounding the UK’s departure from the European Union.